M31

[Notty]

When weighing up the various compromises needed to choose my forever scope (TS Optics Photoline 130) I'm sure I remember all the FOV calculators showing M31 much much closer in than this, so I was very pleasantly surprised by the amount I got in the frame. Managed 4 nights on this over last 10 days, but I've also learned a lesson. Nights 1&2, I took the orientation as it came, which was about 30degs more vertical thus losing me more of both ends of the galaxy. From night 3 I rotated the FOV to get the framing seen here (which still could do with another 10-15deg), but when I stacked the two rotations the artefacts and difference in background was uncalibratable(?) so I ended up with only 2 nights data, last night and night before. The difference in the seeing was so huge between the two nights that most of night 3's subs scored so low I ignored them. So this image is mostly from last night. Compared to previous attempts at this from years ago I'm really pleased with what it's captured near the core as per the closeup.  

TS Optics 130 f/7 ASI1600+EFW EQ6R pro ASIair Pro 90x1m L, 60x1m RGB, flats & darks. Processed in Startools